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Process Evaluation of a Community Garden at an Urban Outpatient Clinic

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Abstract

In addition to expediting patient recovery, community gardens that are associated with medical facilities can provide fresh produce to patients and their families, serve as a platform for clinic-based nutrition education, and help patients develop new skills and insights that can lead to positive health behavior change. While community gardening is undergoing resurgence, there is a strong need for evaluation studies that employ valid and reliable measures. The objective of this study was to conduct a process evaluation of a community garden program at an urban medical clinic to estimate the prevalence of patient awareness and participation, food security, barriers to participation, and personal characteristics; garden volunteer satisfaction; and clinic staff perspectives in using the garden for patient education/treatment. Clinic patients (n = 411) completed a community garden participation screener and a random sample completed a longer evaluation survey (n = 152); garden volunteers and medical staff completed additional surveys. Among patients, 39% had heard of and 18% had received vegetables from the garden; the greatest barrier for participation was lack of awareness. Volunteers reported learning about gardening, feeling more involved in the neighborhood, and environmental concern; and medical staff endorsed the garden for patient education/treatment. Comprehensive process evaluations can be utilized to quantify benefits of community gardens in medical centers as well as to point out areas for further development, such as increasing patient awareness. As garden programming at medical centers is formalized, future research should include systematic evaluations to determine whether this unique component of the healthcare environment helps improve patient outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was conducted in the Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy at Wake Forest School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, 27157 NC, USA. We wish to thank those who volunteered their time and effort at the Downtown Health Plaza Goler Community Garden, the staff at the Downtown Health Plaza, and Michael Suggs and Gwen Jackson, with the Goler Community Development Corporation, for their time and partnership. This work was supported by the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Control Traineeship. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition Sciences, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, 1601 Cherry Street, Mail Stop 31030, Philadelphia, PA, 19102, USA

    Brandy-Joe Milliron & Margaret C. Chenault

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Medical Center Boulevard, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Mara Z. Vitolins

  3. Medical Center Boulevard, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Elizabeth Gamble

  4. Downtown Health Plaza, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Robert Jones

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Medical Center Boulevard, Wake Forest School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Janet A. Tooze

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  1. Brandy-Joe Milliron
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  2. Mara Z. Vitolins
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  3. Elizabeth Gamble
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Correspondence to Brandy-Joe Milliron.

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Milliron, BJ., Vitolins, M.Z., Gamble, E. et al. Process Evaluation of a Community Garden at an Urban Outpatient Clinic. J Community Health 42, 639–648 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-016-0299-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-016-0299-y

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